Zimmerman etal - continued

Here is a follow-up to the earlier post on George Zimmerman and Treyvon Martin.

Reference the two previous posts on the same issue.

There has been a lot of lip service given to the Florida "stand your ground" law.  In fact, the so-called stand your ground" law is language within Florida statute 776.013, Justifiable Use of Force (see link).  That statute is 578 words long and only paragraph (3) is applicable.  Technically it is a "no duty to retreat" law and clearly requires that the person using deadly force believes that deadly force is required to, "...prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony".  The term "forcible felony" is not defined in the statute but might be interpreted as the shooting victim using force to achieve a felonious action (i.e. mugging).

Given the fact that Mr. Martin, the shooting victim, was not engaged in a forcible felony against another person, the statute would seem to require that, to be legal, Mr. Zimmerman, the shooter had to believe that he was in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm.  While Mr. Zimmerman claims, I presume, this to be the case, the state has to examine the circumstances and determine whether that claim is justified.  If they determine otherwise, however, it is up to the state to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Mr. Zimmerman was not in imminent danger of death or great bodily harm to a jury of 12 persons.  

I don't know how this will end but I believe that political pressure will result in Mr. Zimmerman being charged with some sort of wrongful death.  I would think manslaughter but the prosecution may go for 2nd degree murder.  Whether Mr. Zimmerman gets convicted is anyone's guess.  I would foresee a hung jury.  Then there is a possibility of a second trial and/or a wrongful death lawsuit.  In the case of wrongful death, some news organizations are reporting that wrongful death cases have been thrown out upon acquittal of criminal charges.  A hung jury is not an acquittal and the standards of proof in a civil case are that a preponderance of evidence must show guilt, not that guilt must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.  Also, there is no 5th amendment protection in a civil case.


President Obama commented today and his remarks are to-the-point and appropriate.  He is quoted as saying, "  All of us have to do some soul-searching to figure out how does something like this happen and that means that we examine the laws and the context for what happened as well as the specifics of the incident."  While I do not always agree with him, Mr. Obama's statements call for calm and analysis rather than a rush to judgement.